MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US strikes yet another alleged drug-trafficking boat in Caribbean

“They're not coming by sea anymore, so now we'll have to start looking on land,” Trump warned Sunday

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth publicly confirmed and defended the recent attacks on vessels in the Caribbean Sea, escalating the administration's “war on drugs” by characterizing the cartels as “narco-terrorists” and the operations as “acts of war.”

Trump announced on Sunday at a US Navy ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, that the Army had attacked another vessel on Saturday night (making it the fifth strike in recent weeks), claiming the mission was successfully “blowing the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water.”

The Republican leader boasted that the operations were so successful that there are now “no more boats” in that area, stating, “we are having difficulty finding them.”

Due to the perceived success at sea, Trump issued a warning: “They're not coming by sea anymore, so now we'll have to start looking on land.”

According to US officials, at least twenty-one people have died in the strikes so far. Trump justified the actions by calling them “an act of kindness,” claiming that “each of those boats is responsible for the death of 25,000 Americans and families.”

Hegseth defended the strikes as “legitimate and clean attacks in defense of the homeland.” He asserted that the vessels were legitimate targets because US intelligence confirmed they were carrying substantial narcotics, their crews were therefore “narco-terrorists,” and they were operating on a known trafficking route.

He also justified the policy by stating that classifying the targets as “narco-terrorists” makes the action an “act of war,” which allows the military —rather than a law enforcement agency— to operate under a “completely different set of rules,” essentially claiming the right to carry out lethal operations without a prior trial.

The most recent confirmed previous strike occurred on Friday, killing the four crew members of the vessel. The US has confirmed at least four deadly strikes in recent weeks.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also backed the actions, stating that the forces have “tremendous confidence” in their intelligence and that the measure is already having a “dramatic impact” on reducing drug departures. Critics, including the United Nations (UN), have condemned the strikes as extrajudicial executions that violate international law.